Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria

NATIONAL MUSEUM

OF

VICTORIA

MELBOURNE :: AUSTRALIA

MEMOIRS

(World List abbrev. Mem. nat. Mus. Vict.)
C. W. BRAZENOR, Director

No. 22 25th October, 1957 Part 9

The Derivation of the
Melville and Bathurst Islands
Burial Posts

by

D. A. CASEY and ALDO MASSOLA

PUBLISHED BY ORDER
OF THE TRUSTEES

2589/57

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The Derivation of the Melville and Bathurst
Islands Burial Posts

By D. A. CASEY, Honorary Associate in Anthropology, and A. MASSOLA,
Curator of Anthropology.

It is the custom of the natives of Melville and Bathurst Islands to erect carved
and painted posts on the graves of their dead during burial ceremonies. These
posts are of peculiar and distinctive forms, for which no parallel can be found
in Australia and for which no Australian origin can be suggested. The grave
posts were first noted, in 1824, by Captain Bremer (3), the officer in command
of the expedition which established the first settlement in Northern Australia:
Fort Dundas on Melville Island. They have been described by Dr. Basedow (1)
who visited Bathurst Island in 1911, and in greater detail by Sir Baldwin Spencer
(9, 1914), who witnessed mourning ceremonies and the making and erection
of grave posts, in 1911 and 1912. Both Basedow and Spencer believed that the
un-Australian features of the Melville and Bathurst Islands culture were probably
due to influences from the islands to the north of Australia.

McCarthy (5, 1940), in his detailed study of the material culture of the
Australian aborigines has listed a number of items from the Arnhem Land area
for which parallels may be found in New Guinea. He considers that the grave
posts may be compared to posts of the festhaus of the Marind-anim of Dutch
New Guinea as described by Vertenten (10). However, apart from the fact that
in both cases the posts are carved and painted, they are not sufficiently alike to
indicate with any certainty that they are related.

The object of this paper is to show that the shapes of the Melville and
Bathurst Islands grave posts were in fact derived from the carved and painted
posts of the dubu of the Central District of Papua.

The grave posts were made in a great variety of forms. These were listed
and illustrated by Spencer (9, 1928), who showed however that, apart from a
few simple, un-carved posts, all the varieties were made up from three basic
carved features only, which were combined and varied in a number of ways.

These were: (i) A groove carved around the post, (ii) A rectangular hole
cut right through the post, and (iii) A pair of straight prongs rising vertically
from the top of the post (Fig. 1).

Regarding (i): In some cases the posts had disc or drum-like sections which
resulted from the cutting of simple grooves, either near the top of the post or
lower down. In others the grooves were extended and made very much wider,
so as to leave central rod-like parts. At first sight the discs and rod-like parts
seem to constitute separate features of the designs. However, they are both the
result of simple grooving, which is clearly the fundamental feature.

8590/57.

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Regarding (ii): The holes through the posts were in all cases rectangular and
mortise-like in shape, and were cut horizontally right through the posts. In
most cases the vertical sides were left flat, but in some they were considerably
reduced in size, so that they were more or less circular in cross section. In a
few posts, though this form is rare, one of the sides bordering the hole had
been cut away leaving an open “ mouth” on one side of the post.

Regarding (iii): The prong-like projections in all cases were on opposite
sides of the top of the post, and tapered somewhat towards their upper ends. The
surface at the tops of the posts between them was always flat and horizontal.

Every grave had one or two posts with rectangular holes, and at least one
with prongs. The hole and the prongs were never found together on the same
post, and are clearly separate types. The rod-like elements were used either by
themselves, or combined with the hole, or the prongs. Neither Basedow nor
Spencer could find that the holes or the prongs represented anything in particular.
In the natives’ mind the shapes of the posts seemed to have lost any meaning or
significance that once they may have had, and to have become merely
conventionalized. The posts do not seem to have been regarded as sacred in the
way that most ceremonial and ritual objects are regarded by Australia aborigines.
When the mourning ceremonies were completed no further notice was taken of
the posts and no attempt was made to maintain them. Any male was allowed to
assist in making and decorating them, even small boys; women did not take a
practical part in the making, but were not forbidden to be present and did, in
fact, play a prominent part in the mourning ceremonies.

Burial posts are still made and used by the natives of to-day. They have
recently been recorded and photographed by Mountford (6). The shapes of the
posts and their decorative painting are essentially the same as when they were
observed and recorded by Basedow and by Spencer, nearly fifty years ago. Only
a few minor variations have been introduced.

The dubus of the coastal tribes of the Central Division of Papua were large
rectangular wooden platforms, usually erected in a central position in the
village, and used as a meeting place and as a focus for much of the ceremonial
life of the community (Plate 1). They have been described and illustrated by
Seligmann (8). They were from 10 to 15 feet long, and were raised from 3 to 10
feet above the ground upon four large carved and painted corner posts. These
posts were of three types: (i) With a rectangular hole near the top, (ii) With two
prong-like projections at the top, and (iii) With a fork at the top, made by
utilizing the natural fork of a tree (Fig. 1). The ends of the horizontal beams
of the platform were supported either by passing through the rectangular hole,
or by resting between the prongs, or in the fork. In any one dubu either one,
two or all three types of post were used.

According to Seligmann, they were made by, and were the property of,
individual clans. Specified persons within the clan were responsible for providing
and maintaining each post, beam and plank. The posts were decorated with
carved patterns and figures, either in low relief or incised, the latter being often,
if not always, coloured. Annular grooves occurred on many of them as part
of the carved decoration.

3

Thus dubu posts and grave posts had many points in common. Both were
carved and painted, and all three of the fundamental features of the grave posts
were found in the dubu posts. Perhaps the annular grooves are not very significant,
as this simple decoration might occur anywhere, but the association of the two
distinctive features: the rectangular holes and the prong-like projections, both in
the dubu and in the grave posts, indicates with a very high degree of certainty
that they were related and that the one was derived from the other. That the
derivation was from the dubu to the grave posts, and not vice versa is shown, if
for no other reason, by the fact that in the dubu these features were an essential

part of its method of construction, whereas in the grave posts they have no useful
function.

Other points of similarity between the grave and the dubu posts serve to
confirm their relationship. Many of the dubu posts had, at the top, a carved
device or emblem, like a finial. Some were crescent shaped, and others were
knobs or bosses of various forms. Seligmann considered that these were almost
certainly clan badges. A few of the grave posts observed by Basedow and by
Spencer had, in addition to their usual features, crudely carved elements on top,
which may have been representations of dubu post finials.

The fundamental and characteristic carved motif used in the decoration of
nearly all of the dubu posts was a pattern consisting of rows of small four-sided
pyramids standing out from the general suface of the post, called kala (Fig. 2).
This pattern is formed simply by cutting two series of regularly spaced parallel
grooves, at right angles to each other. As pointed out by Seligmann, it is the
casiest imaginable pattern to produce with the natives’ universal tool, the adze.
The kala motif was used mainly to fill in areas of the decorative design and to
cover whole surfaces, but it occurred also in strips, bands, and in single rows.

Seligmann stated that this pattern was explained as signifying the squamae
of the skin of the crocodile, but the pattern is so fundamentally simple that
this explanation may well have arisen merely from its chance resemblance to
crocodile skin.

The kala pattern does not occur on the grave posts, but a pattern which is
essentially the same, although it is painted and not carved, was used on many of
them. This is a sort of hatching made up of two series of closely-set parallel
lines superimposed upon each other, at right angles, exactly the same as the
grooves of the kala pattern. The use of this pattern is not confined to the grave
posts, nor to Melville and Bathurst Islands. It is widely used throughout Arnhem
Land in decorative painting on weapons, utensils, sacred and ceremonial objects,
and on bark drawings. It is in fact highly characteristic of the art of the area.
Like the kala pattern, it is used to cover surfaces and to fill in areas in
decorative designs. In the kala pattern the lines run vertically and horizontally;
in the Arnhem Land pattern the lines usually, but not always, run diagonally.
If the two patterns are related, just such a difference would be expected. Working
with an adze, the implement is held in both hands directly in front of the user
(Fig. 2), so that it is somewhat difficult to cut a diagonal line. In painting with
a brush held in one hand, the swing of the wrist and forearm results naturally
in a diagonal brush stroke, and it is more difficult to make a horizontal or a
vertical line. McCarthy (5) has pointed out that this painted pattern does occur
in New Guinea. It could perhaps have been introduced into Arnhem Land
independently, as a painted pattern; but as the kala was so highly characteristic
of the dubu posts, from which the grave posts were derived, it may well have been
introduced at the same time,

Just how the dubu post designs reached Melville and Bathurst Islands cannot
of course be specified, although it is known that there was contact, by sea, between
Arnhem Land and Papua.

It has been shown by Berndt (2) that the natives of north-eastern Arnhem
Land had knowledge of the Torres Strait islands and the southern coast of New
Guinea. This came about through their contact with the Macassan traders, and
some of them actually visited these places as members of the crew of Macassan
ships; these facts are recorded in their great historical and mythical song cycles.
Berndt has also shown that there is reason to believe, from some of the stories
embodied in the songs, that people from New Guinea or the Torres Strait islands
actually arrived on the shores of north-eastern Arnhem Land, either being driven
there by storms or having sailed there deliberately. It is not known that the
Melville and Bathurst islanders had similar contacts with New Guinea, but this
may well have been so.

The dubu post designs may thus have been brought either by Arnhemlanders
returning from New Guinea, or by New Guinea people arriving in their own
canoes. In this regard it is perhaps significant that the coastal people of the
dubu area, the Koita and Motu, were famous for the long sea voyages made by
their lakatois. It is not known that they sailed as far as Arnhem Land, but such
a voyage would not have been at all impossible for one of these craft.

The dubu was, according to Seligmann, closely associated with the spirits
of the dead. The skulls of the dead were sometimes hung upon them and the
spirits were supposed to resort to them at feast times and to partake of the
shadow of the food hung there for consumption by the living. Berndt has
shown that the Arnhemlanders for some reason regarded the coast of Papua and
the Torres Strait islands as the land of the dead—the place to which their
spirits went after death. Thus the dubu posts may have come to be used as
grave posts either because the dubu itself was associated with the dead or because
of its origin in the land of the dead. ,

The dubu very probably belongs to the Megalithic culture, which spread
out from south east Asia, in comparatively late (Neolithic) times, through
Indonesia, New Guinea and the islands of the Pacific.

The Megalithic builders in India, Indonesia and Melanesia made wooden
structures as well as stone ones, and the dubu is planned on a massive and sturdy
scale well in keeping with the Megalithic manner. Riesenfeld (7) who has made
a particular study of this culture in Melanesia, does not believe that the dubu
belongs to it, because of the relatively small area in which it occurs compared to
the widespread distribution of the culture as a whole throughout Melanesia. He
has not, however, apparently noted that the forked post was a characteristic
feature of the dubu, although he himself has shown that the forked post was
typically Megalithic and had particular significance and importance. In New
Ireland, for instance, the entrance to the courtyards of the men's houses was
via a forked tree trunk, known as the “ eye of the demon ”, which was believed
to prevent the entry of evil spirits. The design of the dubu was in general so
uniform that it is clear that its various constituent parts must have conformed
strictly to convention and tradition. The use of forked posts could not therefore
have been merely fortuitous, It is highly probable that they correspond to the

5

Megalithic forked post as found elsewhere. In Assam, for instance, Hutton (4)
claims that forked wooden posts are there related to forked stone pillars, such as
those erected at Dimapur, at the foot of the Naga Hills, and that this represents
a survival of the Indonesian Megalithic culture. These posts, both the forked

and the “ chessman ” type, in stone or wood, are associated with a cult of the
dead.

The wave of Megalithic culture did not reach Australia, but it seems that at

least a faint ripple from its extreme edge did actually reach Melville and Bathurst
Islands.

REFERENCES.

(1) Basedow, H., 1913. Notes on the Natives of Bathurst Island, Journ. Roy.
Anthrop. Inst. 53.

(2) Berndt, R. M., 1948. Badu. Islands of the Spirits. Oceania XIX.
(3) Bremer, Capt. J. J. G. Hist. Rec. of Austr. Series 3, Vol. 5.
(4) Hutton, J. H., 1929. Assam Megaliths. Antiquity 3.

(5) McCarthy, F. D., 1940. Aboriginal Australian Material Culture. Mankind
VON DOT

(6) Mountford, C. P., 1956. National Geographic Mag. LIX. (3).

(7) Riesenfeld, A. 1950. The Megalithic Culture of Melanesia. Leiden.

(8) Seligmann, G., 1910. The Melanesians of British New Guinea. Cambridge.

1927. The Dubu and Steeple-houses of the Central District
of British New Guinea. Ipek, Leipzig.

1930. The Erection of a Dubu. Antiquity, IV.

(9) Spencer, Sir Baldwin, 1912. Bulletin of the Northern Territory. (2).

1914. Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of
Australia. London.

1928. Wanderings in Wild Australia. London.
(10) Vertenten, P., 1915. Intern. Archiv. Ethnogr. XXII.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Plate 1.—Papuan Dubu, location unknown from photograph in the National
Museum of Victoria.

Fig. 1.—Typical Dubu posts and Grave Posts. 1-3 after Spencer (1914), 4-8 after
Seligmann (1927-1930).

Fig. 2,—Carving Kala pattern on Dubu post. After Seligmann Cho TA

GRAVE POSTS DUP FOSS

Figeg2:

Carving Kala pattern on Dubu Post,

Plate |.

Papuan Dubu,

By Authority: W. M. Houston, Government Printer, Melbourne.